A known fuel system for vehicles with internal combustion engines includes a canister that accumulates fuel vapor from a headspace of a fuel tank. If there is a leak in the fuel tank, the canister, or any other component of the fuel system, fuel vapor could escape through the leak and be released into the atmosphere instead of being accumulated in the canister. Various government regulatory agencies, e.g., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Air Resources Board of the California Environmental Protection Agency, have promulgated standards related to limiting fuel vapor releases into the atmosphere. Thus, it is believed that there is a need to avoid releasing fuel vapors into the atmosphere, and to provide an apparatus and a method for performing a leak diagnostic, so as to comply with these standards.
An automotive leak detection on-board diagnostic (OBD) determines if there is a leak in the vapor management system of an automobile. The vapor management system can include the fuel tank headspace, the canister that collects volatile fuel vapors from the headspace, a purge valve and all associated hoses. A pressure/vacuum sensor or switch allows the engine computer to monitor the vacuum that is caused by the system cooling after the engine has been turned off and thereby performs the leak detection diagnostic. A vacuum relief function provides fail-safe operation of the purge flow system and guarantees that vacuum levels in the fuel tank do not endanger the integrity of the tank both with the engine on and off.
A pressure relief function is desired in order to “blow off” any excessive fuel vapor immediately after engine shutdown and to facilitate the desired vacuum generation. Another benefit of the pressure relief function is to allow air to exit the tank at high flow rates during tank refueling. This function is commonly known as Onboard Refueling Vapor Recovery (ORVR).
A conventional Natural Vacuum Leak Detector (NVLD) employs a solenoid coil to move the pressure relief valve into a fully open position in order to minimize purge flow restriction during engine on periods. During certain periods with the engine running, the solenoid is de-energized in order to allow a “Large Leak” test to run. During these periods, the NVLD armature and poppet can sometimes resonate and cause objectionable noise. Co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11/797,130, filed on May 1, 2007, discloses magnetic dampening for a poppet. This solution is effective, but a less costly solution is desired.
Thus, there is a need to provide an improved, cost-effective NVLD that eliminates poppet resonance.